Take it by your side
by smaragdbird
Summary: Tony is tortured in front of them by villains taking his reactor out and not putting it back in until he's almost dead, several times. Tony gets through it, all angry and defiant and not giving in, but the rest of Avengers are terrified. After they're rescued, Tony is all "I'm fine, ", but inside he's all fucked up because it's giving him Obediah flashback. (Tony/Bruce) h/c


"No visit from your green friend, Dr. Banner. In fact you won't be able to do anything but flash those lovely green eyes at me." She turned to Tony. "Now, Mr. Stark, I've heard quite a lot about this", she tapped her fingers against the arc reactor. "That it keeps a handful shrapnel from tearing your heart apart. But on the way there they would have to tear through a lot of tissue. Painful, isn't it?" She turned back to the team. "But I give you the chance to save him that experience. The codes for Shield's firewall if you please."

"Please", Tony scoffed, rolling his eyes. "We're all professionals here."

"Then I guess I have no choice", she clamped the extractor over Tony's chest and slowly pulled the reactor out. "A remarkable piece of technology. Now this should be interesting to watch." She settled down opposite of Tony who did his best to look completely in control and unconcerned of the situation.

"You know", he said casually, "If you wanted to know all of Shield's secrets you kidnapped the wrong people."

The other raised her eyebrows.

"I mean who do you think we are?"

"The Avengers?" It was voiced as a question and accompanied by a sarcastic smile.

"Exactly. You managed all this and still fell for Fury's flair for the dramatic?" Tony was talking faster, his breath becoming shallower and more laboured with each word. "We're like the clean-up crew. We're the most expendable people Shield has. I mean Cap here can't even tell the difference between the Beatles and the Stones." Tony gasped for air, two, three times with a horrible noise coming from his throat.

The woman stood up and walked very closely to Tony.

"Tell me Mr. Stark can you feel them?"

"Stop this madness!" Thor yelled from his energy cage.

"No, I think another minute or two will do."

A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Tony's face but he wasn't talking anymore just his mouth opening and closing as he tried to breathe like a cruel human grotesque of a stranded fish.

When she put the Arc reactor back in he didn't move at first, staring blankly into nothingness until he suddenly came to life again, shaking his head jerkily.

"Right, where were we?" He asked as if nothing had happened.

"I believe you were laying out your team's incompetence to me, which is very considerate."

"Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist", Tony replied easily, ignoring the worried looks from his teammates.

The woman chuckled. "The codes or do you want to repeat the show?"

"What do you even want with the codes? Knowing what Coulson eats for breakfast would be more useful."

Natasha winced when the arc reactor was pulled from Tony's chest again.

"The only thing you should concern yourself with is the question how long I will do this before I grow bored and let you die instead", the other threatened with a friendly smile.

"And who would you torture next? Natasha maybe? You'd have more luck drawing blood from a stone."

"The codes", the woman repeated looking at the other Avengers with a sadistic smirk. "One could almost assume that your friends like to see you suffer."

"You call this suffering?" Tony quipped breathlessly. "You need to have a heart to heart with some of the other people we met. Even the Ten Rings were better at this than you and they were as incompetent as terrorists can be."

Tony's hands curled into fists so tightly that the skin turned white as he drew another breath. Natasha hurled a slew of Russian curses at the woman, her fists nearly as tightly coiled as Tony's.

"The codes, Miss Romanov", was the only reply which Natasha met with more curses until the reactor was put back into Tony's chest.

"Never knew you felt so passionately about me", Tony winked at Natasha.

"Should we go another round, Mr. Stark? Or will you give me the codes?"

Tony was only shaking his head as if he couldn't believe that this much stupidity existed but his eyes were fixed on Bruce who had opened his mouth.

"Always knew you guys only liked my shiny metal ass", he grinned weakly, sweat running down his face as the reactor was pulled out of his chest once more.

"You have to stop this", Bruce argued. "You have no idea what the shrapnel are doing inside his body. The internal bleeding-"

"Always the physician aren't you Dr. banner?" The woman asked sweetly. "Tell me did you ever tell Mr. Stark that you quit medical school to become a physicist after hearing his talk on medical engineering?"

Tony's eyes widened in surprise but that was the moment when Rhodey came crashing through the ceiling in his suit, guns blazing.

"That's my buddy's heart you have there and I'm having problems with the way you're handling it." He took the reactor from the woman's hand and socked her in the jaw.

"My knight in shining armour", Tony quipped and flattered his eyelashes at Rhodey as he put the arc reactor back where it belonged.

The door opened and Coulson with about a dozen agents marched in, swarming out to let the Avengers out of their cages as Rhodey freed Tony from his restraints and the woman was detained by another two agents.

"Dr. Banner", Coulson said to Bruce, "I need your assurance that you have it under control before I can let you out."

But Bruce shook his head, seeing Tony hanging limply in Rhodey's grip. "Not yet."

"I understand. I'll leave an agent with you to let you out when you're ready."

"He'll need you", Steve pointed out. "You're the one who knows the most about his injuries."

"More reason to make sure the other guy doesn't come out to play", Bruce replied calmly.

/

A high noise tore through Tony's brain and suddenly he couldn't move again and Obediah was whispering into his ear, friendly, nearly fatherly.

The pain in his chest was unbearable but he dragged himself downstairs, holding onto the only thought in his head.

"I don't want to die." His fingers scrambled against the polished floor, too smooth to be of any help.

"I don't want to die." He slid down three steps as his arms gave out under him.

"I don't want to die." The table was just out of his reach and his arms, his legs didn't want to move, there was no air and the pain and-

"I don't want-"the glass case slipped from his fingers and he couldn't reach it, he couldn't- the pain-

Tony woke up with a start, panicking when he couldn't move, couldn't move and somewhere Obadiah was whispering in his ear-

"Tony! Hey, Tony!" Someone was calling his name but all Tony could hear was Obadiah's chuckle.

Tony lunged at the shadow that had appeared but strong warm hands held his arms before Tony could clamp his hands around the outline of a throat.

"Tony, it's me."

"Rhodey?"

"It's good to have you back, buddy", Rhodey smiled warmly and reassured that he was safe.

"Guys, he's awake", he said over radio before turning back to Tony. "The nurses would only let one of us in. Don't know where Shield finds them. I've seen Seals that are less scary."

"O'Loughlin was a seal", Clint said as he walked in", and Ayyib defected from Gadaffi's virgin brigade."

Rhodey stared at him.

"Shield doesn't discriminate", Clint grinned, perching himself up in a corner of the room from where he could see Tony, the door and the window. Natasha followed him with a genuine smile and a kiss on the cheek for Tony while Steve and Thor both clasped him on the shoulder.

Bruce came in last and busied himself with checking on the IV lines and plasters Tony's had pulled off in his panic.

"Please tell me you kept those energy cages. I've been dreaming about studying them since the moment I saw them", Tony told them.

"Good to know you have priorities", Clint drawled from his corner.

"We did", Coulson replied from the doorway with a folder under his arm and Pepper at his side.

"Tell me that's not paperwork. I just woke up from the dead", Tony groaned dramatically.

The corners of Coulson's mouth twitched. "As tempting as the idea is these are the blueprints for said cages. They might keep you occupied until Dr. Banner is comfortable with letting you out of bed. I've seen you on the brink of death too many times by now."

"Coming from you", Tony's eyes gleamed when he took the folder from Coulson but he wasn't going to pass up a chance to trade barbs with Coulson.

"That was once."

"It counts for more. It wasn't just nearly dead but proper dead! Captain Rogers here cried tears at your noble sacrifice", Tony practically glowed with glee when Coulson blushed and Steve cleared his throat. "I think Tony needs to sleep now. We'll come back tomorrow."

"Oh and Stark", Coulson added dryly. "Jarvis agreed to lock you out of the workshop and the car park until Dr. Banner agrees it's okay for you to go there."

Tony immediately turned his best puppy dog eyes on Bruce who only shook his head indulgently. "Pepper, Rhodey and Coulson have to agree, too."

"Traitors", Tony muttered but all four just smiled at him unrepentantly.

/

People had different methods of dealing with nightmares. Tony's recipe was a mix of not-sleeping, coffein and alcohol. Not very successful in the long term but it did wonders in the short term.

"Tony", Bruce said urgently, "You need to sleep."

But Tony stubbornly shook his head and downed another whiskey.

"Come to bed Tony", Bruce repeated.

"You wanted to give her the codes."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I think your life is worth more than a few numbers."

"They're important numbers."

"You're important."

"Yeah, to build things."

"Among other things", Bruce leaned in and pressed a kiss against Tony's temple. "Come to bed Tony. I know you can use your genius intellect for other things than engineering."

"She said you quit medical school because of me", Tony said out of the blue.

Bruce shrugged. "I wanted to help people. You made me realise that I could do this without giving up everything else I was interested in. Nuclear physics can be applied to everything. One guy I studied with works in archaeology."

"But if I hadn't given that talk-"

"-I wouldn't have met you", Bruce finished for him. "And that would have been terrible. Don't you agreed?" He added with a teasing smile.

"Are you trying to flatter me?"

"I'm trying to get you into bed like most people who know you." He grinned but then stepped around the table and cradled Tony's head in his hands. "I know there are things you don't want to talk about. But if you ever think you need to…" He leaned his fore head against Tony's. "Come to bed. I'll be there when you wake up."


End file.
